We do wonder whether the NetEnt design team have a massive hankering for their lost youth. They can’t seem to stop releasing slots themed around fairytales we all learn as nippers. And you know what? They always seem to put an extra dose of effort into the production of these games, as if they are always generated directly from the heart. The old softies probably gather round the campfire while the CEO reads them a story for COB every day but we’re not going to complain while the results keep coming. Fairytale Legends: Red Riding Hood follows in huge footsteps (we’re thinking Jack of the Beanstalk). Is it a worthy addition to the NetEnt fairytale slot catalogue?
WHAT IS FAIRYTALE LEGENDS: RED RIDING HOOD ABOUT?
The big bad wolf has always been a bit of a t**t. Not content with blowing down houses and chomping his way through the porcine inhabitants, he dressed up as a bedridden old woman to try and lure her granddaughter into his jaws. The modern generation can keep their Peppa Pigs and Bob the Builders, real children’s entertainment lies in tales of a cunning, sharp-toothed, child-eating maniac.
Little Red Riding Hood is possibly the most famous fairytale of all so it’s surprising it hasn’t inspired an online slot before, considering the popularity of the genre. The game follows the story faithfully. You’ll help the eponymous heroine navigate her way through the forest to Grandma’s house. She needs to keep her wits about her to avoid Mr Wolf’s clutches but she can call on some help in the shape of the forest fairies. Not only do they have Little Red Riding Hood’s back, but they can inject a little magic into your bank balance too.
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD BONUS FEATURES
Fairytale Legends: Little Red Riding Hood operates from a traditional 5 reel, 3 row layout but hosts a number of unique features to spice up proceedings. It’s serene forest setting with matching soundtrack belies a fast moving slot with a dynamic bonus round and some randomly occurring action that will help you make the most of the 20 fixed bet lines.
STICKY WILD RESPINS
You don’t even need three wild symbols to activate the sticky respins – two will do the trick. Featuring Little Red Riding Hood’s beaming smile, the wild symbols will stay in place for one further spin. If the resulting round results in a payout, you pocket the cash. If you land another wild, meanwhile, then you’re rewarded with another sticky respin.
RANDOM FAIRY FEATURES
Rivalling the tooth fairy in generosity stakes, the forest’s little magical beings reward you randomly in three different ways. All three fairy features can appear at any point during the main game. Let’s run through them quickly:
- Fairy Magic Spin – this little beauty creates a cluster of between 5 and 9 matching symbols. They form an overlay during your spin, reacting with adjacent symbols to form even bigger wins.
- Fairy Surprise – we do like a feature that turns a losing spin to gold. The Fairy Surprise will select a medium paying symbol at random immediately after an unsuccessful turn, then start turning lower value symbols into the selected symbol until the process forms a winning line.
- Fairy Wild Spin – extending the value of your sticky respins, this feature puts 3 or 4 wild symbols in situ and then keeps them there for the duration of your next spin.
BONUS SYMBOLS
Three or more treasure chest symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5 triggers one of three excellent bonus rounds. You have the familiarity of a lucrative free spins round – although even that has a few twists – the instant joy of a coin win or our personal favourite, the excitement of the Beware the Wolf Bonus Game. Pick your treasure chest to crack it open and reveal your path.
BEWARE THE WOLF BONUS GAME
This beautifully rendered little bonus sees you enter a board game. Little Red Riding Hood shuffles herself around the board as you spin a whirligig (which essentially acts as the dice). She collects multipliers between x2 and x20 as she moves and will eventually stop in one of five different types of location, each with a different action. You can pocket an instant coin win, double your multipliers, land an arrow to move you along to the next spot, stop at ‘collect’ to leave the game with the coins you’ve already collected or, most excitingly, reach the cottage to score a casino jackpots coin win.
FREE SPINS ROUND
If the treasure chests reveal the free spins round, you’ll start with 10 free spins. Collect further bonus symbols to prolong your session by up to 10 further spins, and look out for the sticky wild respins. They can be particularly lucrative in the free spins round.7
INSTANT COIN WIN
Unlock the chest containing the Coin Win symbol and secure some instant gratification. You’ll head back to main game some extra weight in your wallet – 15 times your stake amount no less.
WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING ON FAIRYTALE LEGENDS: RED RIDING HOOD?
The bonus features certainly help here. The sticky respins can be particularly lucrative, especially in free spins. And the Beware Your Wolf virtually guarantees a big win (even if the x15 coin win is a little stingy and doesn’t get us too excited). But as ever, you can’t expect the big bonus features to come along too often. Luckily, there’s enough in the main game to keep you topped up while you wait for a bigger payday – thanks in no small part to the wilds and random fairy features. It’s a medium variance slot that leans towards the low end. It has a theoretical payout percentage of 96.33%.
OUR VERDICT ON FAIRYTALE LEGENDS: RED RIDING HOOD
Fairytale Legends: Red Riding Hood is a surprisingly fast-paced game given the theme. The prospect of landing one of the three bonus games will keep you reaching for the spin button and the random fairy features are fun, if not bank breaking. The Beware the Wolf bonus game deserves repeated mention. It’s not only lucrative but beautifully rendered. We’d just like to have seen a bit more of the story and a little more interaction between Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. Overall, however, it’s another creative triumph for the fairytale fans over at NetEnt. It might not quite topple Jack & the Beanstalk, but it isn’t so very far behind.